Kenia Porcell resigns as attorney general

Now FORMER attorney general Kenia Porcell. Public Ministry photo.

Revelations force Kenia Porcell out of office

by Eric Jackson

At a late Tuesday afternoon meeting with President Cortizo, the attorney general — “Procuradora General de la Nación” — handed in her resignation.

We may hear more from her, but such initial explanations she gave were incoherent. She was caught in hacked WhatsApp messages at conniving with former president Juan Carlos Varela to reach plea bargain deals that first of all shielded Varela himself and several of his friends from investigations about fixing overpriced public construction contracts and taking kickbacks from them, and making deals to allow Odebrecht and other companies convicted of public corruption to continue working for government agencies in Panama. She said that if anyone was to call her to account, her apparent co-conspirator, Mr. Varela would have to file the complaint. She said that “Panama needs to know the truth, but the Public Ministry must end its investigation.”

According to Panama’s constitution Porcell’s replacement is an appointment that gets made by the National Assembly. But the main powers there, PRD caucus chair Benicio Robinson and the legislature’s vice president Zulay Rodríguez, are themselves tainted but their thefts from the government’s PANDEPORTES sports institute. (Are they going to charge this reporter for criminal defamation for saying that? They took the money and refuse to account for it. Whatever some judge might be bribed or bullied to say, they stole.)

So is a legislature currentlyh engaged in a “dialogue” with their younger acolytes who are well paid political nothings on campus going to appoint a replacement with a mission to look the other way? Most likely, but also most likely the present turmoil over the constitution would be aggravated. Stay tuned.